Writing at Strong Towns, Charles Marohn notes that he has a book coming out entitled “A World Class Transportation System.” He is frustrated with the not-even-rising-to-the-level-of-a-Band-Aid approach to transportation policy. Our policymakers try only to come up with funding solutions for our current, outdated, system — and are not successful.
Transportation policy in America needs to focus on building cities that are financially productive and then connecting them with high speed, high capacity roadways. We built the interstate. Cross it off the list. We’re done. It’s now time to use that investment – to mature that system – to start getting more out of it.
Might be worth checking out.
Related – 50 years ago, on October 1, 1964, Japan began high speed rail service – Tokyo to Osaka at 130 miles per hour. Faster than we manage even today in the U.S.
Outdated? Try crumbling. A detailed report of how bad infrastructure is can be found through the American Society of Civil Engineers. Here’s Indiana’s report card: http://www.inasce.org/images/Report%20Card%20Final.pdf
In a conservative state like Indiana, gerrymandering is a major factor in this, as it is in every aspect of government. Does anyone really think that investment that serves everybody has an equal chance of getting through the Gen. Ass. when the R and R areas (Rural & Remote) control everything?
We have built more roads than we can afford to maintain because we built for suburban sprawl, an artifact of kid-in-a-candy-store petroleum intoxication. I see market forces pulling people back to walkable neighborhoods already. But the transition to sanity may not all be pretty.
In a city as spread out as Indy, a world-class transit system = driverless cars. Poor people should get free rides to work, plus enough trips to the grocery, doctor, etc, to get by. Why do I think this, you might ask. Why don’t I succumb to the allure of Light Rail, you might ask. Because when I was a kid, we had to take the bus everywhere. That meant in our case walking 3 blocks to/from the bus stop, in all kinds of weather, which sucked. Poor people shouldn’t have to talk to a bus stop or a train station. Driverless cars are the answer, they’re infinitely more convenient, and will be cheaper than the goofball rail lines.